Level 7 Award, Certificate or Diploma In Senior Management

The NQF (National Qualifications Framework) Level for senior managers is Level 7. This is roughly equivalent to the first part of a Masters degree such as MBA and, indeed, with the benefit of a completed Level 7 Management qualification there are a number of UK universities who will offer access and even insome cases exemptions from some of the content of their MBA courses.

"Senior managers" are usually people who have moved up the organisation to become responsible for the strategic direction of a defined area of the business. Alternatively they will be shortly stepping into such a role. Senior managers will typically be managers of managers and have responsibility and remit for driving results through P&L or overall service performance of a key part of the organisation.

People promoted into senior management roles will clearly be your organisation's most experienced and most effective performers, and as such they will have a depth of natural capability for organisational leadership. However, typically this can mask uncertainties with "how to play the senior management game". The rules at the top of an organisation are usually different to those of the middle, and many a middle manager is shipwrecked on the rocks of organisational politics which they have to learn to manage constructively and positively. It is also very easy for senior managers to over-egg the strategic element of their roles, and lose sight of the fact that services are run and profits made by people at the bottom of the organisation who interface directly with customers. Much of their job is still about setting direction for, communicating with and motivating front line staff - being seen and trusted.

Effective senior managers can have a dramatic effect on overall organisational performance as the tone, style and expectations that they set reverberate across a considerable chunk of the business. Critical skills include setting and communicating clear vision and direction, developing and exploiting organisational competencies and market opportunities, forging partnerships and joint ventures and being responsible for motivating and supporting large and often geographically diverse teams of people.

Senior Management Training Content

The content at level 7 therefore reflects these needs and includes:

• Personal development for strategic leadership
• Organisational Strategy
• Strategic HR
• Organisational direction
• Organisational change
• Negotiation and Persuasion
• Financial project appraisal and business cases
• Strategic marketing
• Partnership ventures
• Strategic planning
• Organisational culture
• Programme Management
• Corporate risk
  

Across the three awarding bodies, different combinations of these kinds of subjects are possible with different kinds of content emphasis. Choosing the right awarding body will enable you to align content to meet your specific organisational development needs.

Level 7 - Senior Managers - Qualifications Available

The Level 7 Qualifications that Croft Centre delivers are:

At level 7, the amount of content for each qualification is roughly as follows. The actual number of units, taught days and guided learning hours vary depending which awarding body you choose:

** Guided Learning Hours include a mixture of:

• Face to Face study
• Own time study - reading, research, implementation in the workplace
• Assignment writing

Within Level 7, you can either run a longer qualification from day one and enable people who don't want to do the whole thing to "stop" at key milestones, or you can start small with a Level 7 Award, then add a few more units and do a Level 7 Certificate and then more still and do a Level 7 Diploma. You can do this over several years if you want to and this more methodical approach is a great way to keep your senior managers continuing their personal development as they take on more and wider responsibilities for moving your organisation forwards.

Progression from Level 7 is on to Masters Degrees which can be linked to functional areas such as HR, marketing, operations etc or can be generalist such as MSc in Management or an MBA.

Assessment at Level 7

We usually design assessments with you based on a library of examples we have, but focused around your organisational needs. At least 2/3 of the assessment work at level 7 is written work-based assignments and these are usually between 2500 and 4000 words in length. But other assessment methods are often used such as presentations, completed workbooks, online tests and work based projects.

Overall at level 7 your managers will probably end up doing something along the following lines - each awarding body differs in its requirements and advice:

Assessments are the way in which the Awarding Bodies prove that learning outcomes have been met. There is a set of learning outcomes for each unit you choose for your programme, however you don't necessarily have to do one piece of assessed work per unit - you can often successfully combine learning outcomes for more than one unit in the same piece of work.

Croft Centre marks and feeds back on all written work along with carrying out internal verification to ensure common and fair marking standards are kept. All assessment work is periodically reviewed and inspected by the relevant Awarding body.

Level 7 - Senior Managers - Cost Information

All costs are calculated using your final choice of awarding body, units, number of taught days and so on. However, for the financial year 2009/10, based on a group of 15 delegates in one programme, typical costs per delegate for Level 7 qualifications planned and delivered in your organisation by Croft Management Centre fall within the following ranges:

• Level 7 Award in Management - £600 to £900 per delegate plus VAT
• Level 3 Certificate in Management - £1000 to £1500 per delegate plus VAT
• Level 3 Diploma in Management - £1600 to £2200 per delegate plus VAT

Selecting the right kind of course for your senior managers can be particularly challenging. You may find it helpful to have a conversation with our programme director Jeremy Hamilton. Please do contact or give Jeremy a call on 01202 461230  - he will be very happy to help you clarify your specific needs.